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In macroscopic thermodynamics, the second law is a basic observation applicable to any actual thermodynamic process; in statistical thermodynamics, the second law is postulated to be a consequence of molecular chaos.
These concepts of temperature and of thermal equilibrium are fundamental to thermodynamics and were clearly stated in the nineteenth century. The name 'zeroth law' was invented by Ralph H. Fowler in the 1930s, long after the first, second, and third laws were widely recognized.
Thermodynamics is expressed by a mathematical framework of thermodynamic equations which relate various thermodynamic quantities and physical properties measured in a laboratory or production process. Thermodynamics is based on a fundamental set of postulates, that became the laws of thermodynamics.
For quasi-static and reversible processes, the first law of thermodynamics is: d U = δ Q − δ W {\displaystyle dU=\delta Q-\delta W} where δQ is the heat supplied to the system and δW is the work done by the system.
Systems do not contain work, but can perform work, and likewise, in formal thermodynamics, systems do not contain heat, but can transfer heat. Informally, however, a difference in the energy of a system that occurs solely because of a difference in its temperature is commonly called heat , and the energy that flows across a boundary as a result ...
For thermodynamics, a natural process is a transfer between systems that increases the sum of their entropies, and is irreversible. [2] Natural processes may occur spontaneously upon the removal of a constraint, or upon some other thermodynamic operation , or may be triggered in a metastable or unstable system, as for example in the ...
According to the second law of thermodynamics, a system assumes a configuration of maximum entropy at thermodynamic equilibrium. We seek a probability distribution of states ρ i {\displaystyle \rho _{i}} that maximizes the discrete Gibbs entropy S = − k B ∑ i ρ i ln ρ i {\displaystyle S=-k_{\text{B}}\sum _{i}\rho _{i}\ln \rho _{i ...
In equilibrium thermodynamics the state variables do not include fluxes because in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium all fluxes have zero values by definition. Equilibrium thermodynamic processes may involve fluxes but these must have ceased by the time a thermodynamic process or operation is complete bringing a system to its eventual ...